Sunken Bangladesh ferry with 200 people on board was `overcrowded`

Just two and half months after a ferry capsized in a river in central Bangladesh, another ferry with some 200 passengers on board sank on Monday, reports cited the police as saying.

Zee Media Bureau

Dhaka: Just two and half months after a ferry capsized in a river in central Bangladesh, another ferry with some 200 passengers on board sank on Monday, reports cited the police as saying.

The incident reportedly took place in Padma river in Bangladesh`s Munshiganj District.

The police said that 50 passengers had been rescued after the boat sank around 30 kilometres (20 miles) south of the capital Dhaka.

"We have heard that the ferry was overloaded with passengers and the river was rough," local police chief Tofazzal Hossain told AFP.

The incidents comes just a couple of months after in May, a ferry carrying more than 100 passengers capsized and sank in Meghna river in central Bangladesh after being hit by a storm.

Ferry accidents are common in Bangladesh, a low-lying delta nation, because of overcrowding, faulty vessels and lax rules.

In 2012, at least 150 people died when a ferry carrying about 200 people capsized at night in the river.

In 2003, an overcrowded ferry capsized in flood-swollen waters at the confluence of the Padma, Meghna and Dakatia rivers near the capital Dhaka. Up to 400 people died.

With Agency Inputs

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